Environmental Management System towards Environmental Performance of Hotel Industry: Does Corporate Social Responsibility Authenticity Really Matter?

Abstract

Environmental Management Initiatives (EMI), as part of the sustainability management movement, have become an integrated part of the organisational management practices and of the current research. Since the implementation of Environmental Management System (EMS), there have been many studies analysing this relationship with the environmental performance. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also gained a great importance for the organisations’ performance, including their performance in the environmental area. However, previous studies analysed the direct link between those variables and environmental performance, while the mediating effect of those variables has not been tested yet because using a mediator in the relationship between two variables is a rather new approach in the research area used in the behavioural sciences area. This research analyses the role of EMI in defining the Environmental Performance (EP) of hotel industry, given the strong relationship between those two variables and the importance of the tourism sector for the economic development, both in the developed, but especially in the developing countries. It also investigates the CSR authenticity as mediator between EMI and EP link. Data was collected through a questionnaire of managers of the hotels in Pakistan. Correlation, Structural Equation Model and linear regressions were applied for testing the hypotheses and for checking the viability of the model. Findings revealed that EMI and CSR authenticity are important and significant determinants of EP in the hotel industry. Findings show that CSR authenticity acts as a mediator for the EMI and EP link. The stakeholder pressures and customers’ environmental awareness have forced the hotel industry to implement environmental standards and this shift of focus is more important in the hotel industry. The current research demonstrates that efforts of EMI is a prerequisite for enhancing CSR authenticity in the environmental area, and this, in its turn, contributes to the increase of the EP of hotel and tourism sector in a developing country. Given the lack of large financial resources of the developing countries, this model is an important outcome for the tourism industry that helps hotels to become green, to attract more clients and to gain competitive advantages.